Happy 11th Birthday Tanner, Connor and Sydney

My kids love hearing about their birth.  As they grow older we tell them more and more details about the miraculous way they came to this earth.  We had a few minutes before the bus came on their birthday morning and so I found myself answering their questions as I looked at their amazed faces staring into the distance trying to imagine that when they were born their dad's wedding ring could fit around Connor's arm or that Sydney was the sickest in the NICU or that Tanner was supposed to be born 2nd but they found him inside of me before Connor.  As they left for the bus I found myself thanking my Heavenly Father once again for the blessing of having them in our family.

David and I enjoyed a Chic-fil-A birthday lunch with the kids outside on the school picnic tables.  They chose to go to Wasabi's for dinner, YUM.  An elderly couple was at our table and couldn't stop gushing about the fact that they were triplets.  They are used to this attention, and it's interesting to see their different reactions to it.  We ended our night with cake and presents and a video chat with Trey.  What a perfect day.

Package from Trey with BYU presents!!

That fire is hot!

 Below Sydney's face you can see the missed rice ball

first day of school 2011

 "Mom, can you make sure my hair isn't puffy?"

 "This is my favorite back-to-school outfit I've had so far!"

"mom, I need new shoes!"

After all her excitement of driving to school on the first day, Allie forgot to pick up a parking permit....She did get one the next day!

Safety patrol!

For years Connor has wanted to be a safety patrol.  I don't think he was even in the Intermediate School yet when he first saw the safety patrol badge and coveted it.  He would talk about it all the time.  A few Christmases ago he asked for one for Christmas, and thanks to ebay he got one.  Connor has always liked playing school, being the teacher and telling his students what to do.  So, a few months ago the kids brought home a form to fill out and had to get 5 references from various teachers and adults.  It was really quite the process to apply for safety patrol.
 Anyway, today they found out that they all made it!!!  Tanner, Connor and Sydney are all p.m. safetys.  Watch out FIS, there's a few new sheriffs in town.

snow days

 It took a while to get all four on the sled, but they had sooo much fun doing it!  After some failed attempts and lots of laughing they finally did it! (they realized the rope was caught under the snow)

Notice the snow pants that are meant for a 5 year old.  We haven't bought snow clothes in a while (:

And where was Trey during all this fun sibling sledding you ask?  Walking, in his new boots he got for BYU, to his second home, Nick's house.  He and Allie did some pretty awesome sledding the next day with some friends.

kids are amazing-ly funny

Tanner continues to be such a sweetheart in our family, always the first to tell everyone he loves them and always very concerned about others feelings.  A few weeks ago we had some landscaping redone in our front yard.  Tanner apparently thought that the workers were doing a good job and needed to know about it.  The day after I found this note on our front porch along with 2 water bottles.  It reads "you are doing great!  Keep it up!  Awesome!  From Tanner:  (Lisa's son)."  I wasn't sure if the landscapers drank some of the water or Tanner had put out some 1/2 empty water bottles...

Connor's teacher (the most amazing 4th grade teacher ever) puts out the class announcements in the form of a class newspaper called the Shaver Scoop.  Connor loved this and decided to publish the Sexton Scrub.  He has published and circulated 5 issues to date.  His teacher told me at my parent conference that she is a recipient of the Scrub.  Look out Barber Pole!

Last Sunday Sydney came into our bedroom and asked with an innocent face, "where is Kroger's?"  To which I said "what do you mean?, it's in Farragut."  She then said "I mean what's the address?"  I was in the middle of having a few moments to finally talk to David for the first time that day so I quickly dismissed her with a "I don't know honey I'll have to look it up later."  She shut the door giggling hysterically.  Hmmm, oh well.  Little did I know what she was up to.  Later that night when Allie went to bed she came down laughing with this in her hand:

David said:  "I guess that's what Sydney meant earlier when she said she wanted to do a prank."

Happy Halloween!

Connor is not Harry Potter, he is Connor, a wizard friend of Ron's.

Tanner is not Ashe, the well known Pokemon trainer, he's just a regular pokemon trainer.

Sydney is exactly what she looks like, a cute little blue m & m.

Oaks Farm

It had been about 5 years since we had been to a corn maze/pumpkin patch so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful fall day and go.  We were impressed with the high quality destination of Oaks Farm in Corryington, Tennessee.



We started off with the hayride pumpkin patch where Tanner and Connor took about 30 seconds to pick out their perfect pumpkins.  Sydney surprised us by choosing one in just a few minutes and only changing her mind once.  Tanner said he knew right away which one was his pumpkin because it was warm and had a small stem, like him.  I thought it was interesting that they picked small, medium and large pumpkins.

We then ventured into a huge corn maze, which at an aerial view is cut to spell out "corn maze".  We each took turns finding the next number station to punch on our cards and loved climbing up the bridge which gave you a beautiful view just above the tops of the corn stalks.  

The kids said one of their favorite things to do was run around and chase each other on the hay bales.

Sydney gets her ears pierced - take 2

 Sydney has been asking to get her ears pierced for a few years now.  I decided and told her I thought she'd (I'd) be ready when she was 10.  I had to wait until I was 14 (clearing throat sound.... dad!) ;) to get mine pierced and so I remember how important it is to a little girl who really wants to get her ears pierced.  She was not nervous at all, which surprised me.  She said it didn't hurt at all and has been the proud owner of daisy earrings ever since.  Hey, this makes Sydney the first cousin to have her ears pierced!

They're 10!!!!

It's really hard to believe my babies are 10.  We celebrated the weekend by having a cousin sleepover, watching lots of home videos of Tanner, Connor and Sydney as babies/toddlers, and all the family coming over on Sunday for some cinder cake.

Happy birthday to our miracle babies!!  Life would not be as joyful and fulfilling without you in it!

I took the girls out to get Sydney's ears pierced, but sadly the owner had gone home for the night so it had to wait until the next day.  The girls cheered up as we went over to Justice to do some shopping.